Until the early 1800s, Audley was basically an agricultural area with some
industry but during the nineteenth century the balance shifted to make it mainly
an industrial centre, the key factor being the deeper mining of the local coal.

In 1800 the population was just over 2000, with a steady increase to 6,500 in
1861 and a more rapid rise to 13,000 in 1901. Newcomers came from
Wolstanton, Chesterton, Knutton and Silverdale, probably bringing mining skills,
but in even greater numbers from the more rural areas of Barthomley, Betley,
Wybunbury, Madeley and Keele.

The main township growth was in Talke, Halmer End and Bignall End around
existing and new collieries, whilst Eardley End, Knowle End and Park End saw
little change.

By 1861 the occupational structure was roughly 40% mining, 20% farming and 40%
other occupations. The latter figure includes all those whose services
were required to house, clothe and provide food and drink for a growing
township, plus a surprisingly large number of domestic servants.

Basically, if you have family links with Audley then you will find that your
research leads you down one of two paths, either tracing families that have been
in the parish for up to 400 years or following a family line in Victorian
times. Luckily for the researcher, “foreigners” to Audley rarely travelled
more than 10 miles to take up residence in the village and even as late as 1861
accounted for less than 10% of the population. However, you may still be
one of the unlucky ones whose ancestors came from Malpass, Tarvin, Liverpool or
Ireland.

Incidentally, many tradesmen or professional people came from further afield,
especially with regard to police officers, schoolmasters, doctors and excise
officers.

The ecclesiastical centre of the area was the parish church of St James, with a
chapel of ease at Talke, which became the centre of its own parish in 1859.
The earlier Talke records are included in the records of Audley church, the
later ones are deposited at the County Records Office.

The records of Audley church are fairly complete from 1538 onwards, with the
exception of the Commonwealth era (1649-1660). The original records before
1860 are at the County Records Office and are available on film for general
viewing. For the period after 1860 the records are still held at the
church. The Audley & District FHS has indexed and transcribed copies of
the church records to 1910.

From 1800 Nonconformist chapels were founded throughout the parish, eventually
totalling over 15 in number. Records relating to these chapels are to be
found in a variety of locations, depending upon the branch of Nonconformity and
the circuit to which a particular chapel belonged, which can mean a trip to
Chester, Stafford, Newcastle library, Hanley library, or even a person’s
home.

Newspapers covering the Audley area were, first, the Staffordshire Advertiser,
which can be seen in Keele University library, and later the Evening and Weekly
Sentinel, the latter being more useful as it tended to give more coverage to
rural areas. The Evening Sentinel, on film, can be studied in Newcastle
and other main libraries.

So if you are beginning the life-long task of tracing your family tree, knowing
that most of your ancestors were linked with Audley and the neighbouring
parishes, how do you tackle the problem?

First, gather all the information that you can from elderly relatives, family
friends, family literature such as bibles, funeral cards and all the collections
gathered over that years that all too often end up in the dustbin with the death
of the owner. (Watch out for “cheating”, often for reasons of
respectability - or honest mistakes - such as wrong dates on gravestones.)

If you can trace an ancestor back to 1891 then your problems are on the way to
being solved. This is the date of the last census to be published, being
the final one of a series compiled every 10 years back to 1841. Each
census, on film, is available at Newcastle library, the County Record Office and
various other locations. The easiest way, however, is to use our society
transcriptions, which are also indexed.

The census returns show who was living in a particular house when the return was
made, their relationship to the head of the household, age, occupation and place
of birth. There are omissions, mistakes and falsehoods, but basically it
is a very valuable source of information.

From 1837 onwards, births, deaths and marriages had to be registered. This
sounds like the answer to all problems, but there are pitfalls. Audley
registrations can be checked and certificates obtained from the Rural District
Registrars at Sidmouth Avenue, Newcastle, but some Audley people may have been
born, buried or married outside the area. The Family History Centre at the
Mormon church in the Brampton can help here because they have the index to all
the registrations in England and Wales and, once you have discovered your
particular relative, will send off for a certificate on your behalf. You
could travel to London, join the scrum at St Catherine’s House, and obtain
your certificate, with some delay, from there - at much greater cost!

From 1837 back, you are basically dependent on the parish church records, which
I mentioned earlier. There are a few problems: missing entries due to
fading ink, a forgetful vicar, or, in the time of the Commonwealth, a refusal to
accept the minister appointed by the government and the type of service he was
ordered to use, especially for marriages. A 45% mortality rate amongst
young children means a careful check in the deaths register, with a wary eye
watching for the naming of a later child with the same Christian name as a
previous child who died very young.

Also included in ecclesiastical records are wills, which had to be sent to and
administered by the church authorities at Lichfield. These can be viewed
at the Lichfield Records Office, or they will send a photocopy of the relevant
will. Puzzles concerning families, feuds and disinheritance can often be
solved in this way.

Two special helps for the local researcher are probably unique to the area.
The first is Richard Parrot’s survey of the parishes of Audley and Talke,
written in 1733. It is a summary of the houses and people going back over
a period of about 200 years, with beautiful snippets of information about the
characters he is portraying. There is a copy in Audley library. The
second is William Kelsall’s pedigrees, an antiquarian exercise, drawing up many
family trees in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire. The earliest
pedigrees start about 1530 and may go up to 1760. The original book of
about 800 or so pages is in the Staffordshire County Record Office, but
gradually members of our society are copying and transcribing some of the longer
entries.

The final aid to discovering your ancestors is a world-wide one. It is the
International Genealogical Index (IGI) and contains, on microfiche, a summary of
all the entries for the British Isles taken from parish records and the same,
wherever possible, from all over the world. For the United Kingdom it is
still not complete, although Staffordshire is fairly well covered. The
national version is available at the Family History Centre in the Brampton and
Newcastle library, and the Staffordshire part at Audley library.

If your ancestors strayed over the border into a neighbouring parish, then
transcription of their registers, up to about 1800, can be found in Newcastle
library, or in our society records for several of these parishes.

If, having read this article and spoken to your oldest relatives, you want help
in making the next step, we will be pleased to see you at a meeting of the
society. See the Introduction for details.

Audley Family History
Society - List of Records Held Sept 1995

Audley census:

1841-1861 -
Transcribed and also stored on computer

1881 -
Transcribed

1891 - Fiche

Audley Parish Registers:

1538-1910
marriages

1538-1909
baptisms

1538-1914
burials

Audley and Betley Wills:

List of those
held at Lichfield

Barthomley Census: 1851 & 1871

Betley Census: 1851-1881

References to Betley in Collections for a History of Staffs & Calendar of
Charter Rolls, in date order. 1227-1640

Betley Parish Registers 1538-1802

Chesterton census:

1841 - transcribed

1851 on:
forthcoming

Keele Parish Registers:

1543-1812
marriages

1540-1712
burials and baptisms

Madeley Parish Registers:

1567-1812
marriages

1567-1775
burials and baptisms

Talke Census:

1891 (fiche
only at present)

Monumental Inscriptions:

Central
Methodist Cemetery, Bignall End

Independent/Congregational Chapel, Halmerend

St John's
Church, Alsagers Bank

Audley Church

Talke Church

Selection of family trees from the Kelsall Pedigrees + list of names to be
found in the Pedigrees

Thesis: "The Nailmaking Industry in Audley..., c1550-1750" by L.Williams.
Univ. Keele, MA in Local History, 1993